Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
Entrepreneurship is important for many reasons, not all of them quantifiable. New nterprises can supply a growing economy with new wealth and new jobs; they can create better jobs or bring whole new industries to emerging markets. They can open up new cultural possibilities in countries where risk aversion previously hampered entrepreneurial achievement. And a growing body of literature finds that entrepreneurship can have major, large-scale economic impact.
You won’t find an African country among the world’s top 25 performers for innovation, but several low-income African countries are outperforming their peers based on GDP, earning the designation “innovation achievers.”
Co-published by Cornell University, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and A.T. Kearney, the Global Innovation Index goes beyond traditional measures of innovation such as research and development, and has evolved into a benchmarking tool used to evaluate progress.
Image: http://afkinsider.com
The most important lesson I’ve learned in business is that to be successful, you have to be at the right place at the right time with a brilliant product. At my first startup in the mid-90s, our online e-commerce store was well-timed and we were offering a compelling service, but we were in Columbus, Ohio, and had no access to local venture capital.
Hammer pants. Frosted tips. Fanny packs.
Some of you bought into these flavours of the month. Others, well, lucked out. At one time, for better or worse, following these ‘fads’ meant you had your finger firmly on pop culture’s pulse.
Because they come and go at a moment’s notice, trends get a bad rap. But being trendy can serve a broader purpose. Trendsetters and followers are looked at as experts and generate buzz wherever they go.
Image: http://ventureburn.com
Two sets of numbers shows how far biopharma activity has progressed in Asia recently. The value of biotech venture capital funding during the first quarter zoomed to $174 million in the first quarter from $150 million in Q4 2015 and a mere $9.4 million in Q1 2015, according to Tech In Asia.
But as the news outlet acknowledges, biotech accounts for a small fraction of total VC funding. The best guess of how small comes from KPMG and CB Insights, whose most recent quarterly Venture Pulse report included biotech within a “healthcare” sector that accounted for 5% of Q1 2016 deals, unchanged from the previous quarter and the year-ago quarter.
Life science venture firm 5AM Ventures has raised $285 million for fund number 5, according to data from a Form D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm makes investments in life science startups at the seed and early stage of their development.
The investment firm did not immediately return calls for comment.
5 AM Ventures previously raised $250 million in 2013 for 5 AM Ventures IV. It led financing rounds in 11 companies since then, according to data from CrunchBase, such as scPharmaceuticals, Chrono Therapeutics, Cidara Therapeutics, Precision NanoSystem, Biodesy and Pear Therapeutics.
Every year, the Legatum Institute, a London-based think tank, releases its annual global Prosperity Index, a huge survey that ranks the most prosperous countries in the world.
The amount of money a country has is one factor of prosperity, but the Legatum Institute considers more than that in its ranking.
The organisation compares 89 variables to come up with its list. These variables include traditional indicators like the per capita gross domestic product and the number of people in full-time work as well as more interesting figures such as the number of secure internet servers a country has and how well-rested people feel on a day-to-day basis.
Image: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk
Quebec's aggressive courtship of digital industries has gained it an international reputation for multimedia works and made Montreal a hotbed for innovative thinkers.
The commerce and creativity conference, C2 Montreal, brought 5,000 innovators together from around the world last week to share ideas and expand their knowledge base.
Image: Richard St-Pierre is the president of C2 Montreal, the annual conference which launched in 2012. (Ainslie MacLellan/CBC)
This article is the third and final in a series of 3 articles discussing measuring product innovation. Part 1 discussed the importance of innovation, and how it is measured today. Part 2 covered the criteria for a new and effective innovation index.
Today, Part 3 brings the series to a conclusion by proposing such index, called the Growth Innovation Index (GII).
Image: http://www.innovationexcellence.com
Technological progress is often hindered or almost impossible in Europe. We need to embed an Innovation Principle in European policy making, writes Markus J. Beyrer.
Markus J. Beyrer has been Director General of BUSINESSEUROPE since late 2012.
Are you in favour of innovation? If you ask anyone in Europe, I believe 99% would say, yes, it’s a good thing. But if you ask the same people if our European researchers, engineers and companies should be allowed to take more risks to explore new and innovative products and companies to put these new products easier on the market the answer would be: “I’m not sure.” “Better not.” Just a few may say “Yes, because otherwise innovation will just happen outside Europe.”
Josh Cook is looking to capture some organic growth through crowdfunding for his Nextdoorganics food store in Brooklyn.
The Bedford-Stuyvesant-based store is aiming to raise $50,000 to $100,000 via new rules that allow startup companies not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to crowdfund securities offerings.
Image: Josh Cook stands in front of Nextdoorganics in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Photo: Angel Chevrestt
We are living in an age of urban renewal, of the New American City, where small businesses and entrepreneurs create the bulk of the jobs, and governments and community groups partner to help them succeed.
In the New American City, neighborhoods are recognized as places of vibrancy, culture and celebration, where the past is honored as we chart our path into the future. In the New American City, where knowledge is power, educational opportunities extend far past the four walls of the classroom as we teach the next generation to excel in the innovation economy.
Image: http://www.democratandchronicle.com
Over the next 90 days, you can build not only your business but also your personal leadership beyond what you may have thought possible.
Let this be the year you become the leader you want to be--in your business and in life.
1. Know yourself. The best leaders truly know themselves. Learn to recognize your strengths and work on your weaknesses.
2. Create a personal mission statement. As a leader is it important to have a personal sense of mission crafted into something you can reflect on daily and measure your performance against.
3. Lead your own way. Find out what your personal leadership strengths are so you can make the most of them.
I recently watched a documentary about Kobe Bryant, the NBA legend. Kobe grew up in my hometown, so I was aware of his superstar status earlier than most people. At his high school games, he looked like a man playing with boys. No one was surprised when he was drafted by the NBA in the first round, at the age of 17.
We expect genius to always look like that. When we see someone of extreme accomplishment, it is almost inconceivable that their special gifts weren’t always apparent, but they usually aren’t. To take just one famous example, Albert Einstein wasn’t even made a full professor until 1911, six full years after his miracle year.
Image: http://www.innovationexcellence.com
The rise of interest in entrepreneurship among college students isn’t just resulting in more courses focused on innovation, it’s bringing more funding for student innovators and entrepreneurs to campus.
One such program at the University of Oregon known as the Spark Grants provides student entrepreneurs with the funding they need to get their ideas off the ground.
Every year, coastal science professor Stephen Leatherman — also known as "Dr. Beach" — ranks the best beaches in the U.S.
At the top of the list for 2016: Hawaii's Hanauma Bay, on Oahu.
Leatherman, who is a professor and Director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University, uses 50 criteria to rank the quality of public beaches.
SAN FRANCISCO — Like many Silicon Valley start-ups, Larry Gadea’s company collects heaps of sensitive data from his customers.
Recently, he decided to do something with that data trove that was long considered unthinkable: He is getting rid of it.
The reason? Gadea fears that one day the FBI might do to him what it did to Apple in their recent legal battle: demand that he give the agency access to his encrypted data.
Image: Larry Gadea, the chief executive of Envoy, works at his desk in his company's San Francisco office. (Nick Otto for The Washington Post)
People of Norway may have another reason to rejoice as the country has been ranked as the most prosperous in the world once again.
Every year, The Legatum Institute, a London-based think tank, releases its annual global Prosperity Index, which ranks the most prosperous countries in the world. While, the amount of money a country has is one factor of prosperity, the Legatum Institute considers more than that in its ranking.
Image: Norway is the most prosperous country in the world according to global prosperity index. PHOTO: visitnorway
American entrepreneurship, the social force that made this country the envy of the world, is dying. Many different studies, using different ways to measure the growth and success of start-ups, all point to the same conclusion. The decline in U.S. entrepreneurship has been going on for decades.
• A study published in December 2015 by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) shows that start-up activity has been slowing down in the United States for about three decades, dropping sharply over the past 10 years.
Broward College has launched an accelerator in downtown Fort Lauderdale that will offer entrepreneurs coursework and education that could lead to funding for their businesses.
The college celebrated the arrival of the program earlier this week and will offer a formal application process three to four months from now, said Don Cook, executive director of marketing and strategic communications. In about 30 days, the accelerator's website will be up, he added.
Image: Bob Swindell, CEO of the Broward Alliance COURTESY BROWARD COLLEGE
